Suicide prevention co-ordinator hopes to save lives (With video)

The 58-year-old Windsor women tried to take her own life many times over five or six years. One day four years ago, after years in hospital and group homes, she suddenly awoke free of symptoms. Sue, who asked her last name not be used because of her children, wants to spread the message that you can come through on the other side, “and that you can live.”

Denis Boileau, who was recently hired to be this region’s first-ever suicide prevention co-ordinator, a one-year contract position approved by the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network, wants to spread that message and see many more such success stories.

“We’re taking it out of the closet and we want to make a difference,” Boileau said Thursday as he explained his challenging responsibility — shrinking the number of local men and women (three men kill themselves for every one woman) who intentionally end their lives.

Anyone who is suicidal certainly wants to connect with someone, he explained. “And that is the primary aim, to connect them with other individuals or agencies that we can make a difference and save people’s lives.”

Sue said bringing it out in the open is important.

“I think people should talk about it, but (society) is afraid to talk about it because there’s the fear people might do it,” she said. “It’s not sinful, it just shows how much pain that person was in.”

Sue moved to Windsor in 2002, single with two kids, and was struggling with depression that turned to severe anxiety and a desire to never leave the house. A sudden relationship breakup was the straw that broke the camel’s back, she said.

She twice took every pill she had all at once and ended up in the hospital ICU. She tried to cut herself so she’d bleed to death. She drank bleach. Once, she left the hospital, took a cab to Huron Church Road and spent an hour contemplating walking out into the truck traffic. “I thought, each time I did these things, I would die. But I didn’t, and my kids had to see that.”

People who make judgments about people who try to kill themselves don’t understand the hopelessness they feel, said Sue.

“It’s hard to understand how you can get to that point, it seems like your last chance to get rid of the pain,” said Sue, who says she’s now happy, and never thinks of suicide. Shortly after getting better she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and people remarked during her treatment how remarkably happy she was.

But the numbers don’t lie. More men die from suicide than car accidents, and yet it’s a harrowing cause of death that gets little attention when it comes to prevention.

By hiring Boileau, the LHIN is addressing and promoting the fact that suicide is a preventable public health problem, said Carol Mueller, executive director of Alive! Canada, a Windsor-based agency that provides training and awareness about suicide.

The Canadian suicide rate is about 15 per 100,000 population and the Windsor-Essex region is in that range, with 40 in 2009, 47 in 1010 and 37 in 2011. Preliminary figures for 2012 suggest a significant drop, to 23. But the number of actual deaths is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact of suicide on the community, said Mueller.

“When you start going down (below the surface of the water), you see the number of people who’ve attempted or thought about is, and then all the people affected by all of the above,” she said. The number of suicides attempted compared to the number of successful suicides is widely divergent, from 150 to 200 attempts for every successful suicide among teenage girls, to six for one among the elderly.

“And all of a sudden you have a huge public health problem, it’s not just the deaths,” Mueller said, adding that middle-aged men have the highest suicide rate.

She said at least 70 per cent of people who are suicidal communicate their intent to other people.

“That’s why we educate people, so they can understand what that communication means,” and get that person help.

“Hearing them say ‘I just want to die,’ or ‘I don’t want to be here anymore,’ this should be one of those red flags and I need to do something,” Mueller said. “Get help.”

People can go to the hospital emergency, call 911 or the Community Crisis Centre at 519-973-4435, or speak to a family doctor the person’s psychiatrist or counsellor, she said.

The signs someone may be suicidal include: talking or threatening suicide, seeking out a lethal method, and feelings of purposelessness, anxiety and hopelessness. A past suicide attempt dramatically increases the risk, as does access to firearms. And a triggering event — job loss, financial trouble, relationship problems, anything that causes humiliation shame or despair — can lead to suicide.

Boileau likes to think of the signs of suicide as “invitations” from the suicidal person who is seeking out someone to talk to. “Listen, don’t judge, inspire them, give them some hope and redirect them to resources,” he said.

Boileau said we must take the stigma away from suicide. (Mueller said her organization doesn’t use the expression “commit suicide” because suicide is no longer a crime “committed” by a criminal.) And people should recognize it’s something that does occur in our community.

In his new job Boileau will be looking at how effective the system is for suicidal people and identifying gaps and better ways to co-ordinate the services provided by the various agencies. He wants to produce a little pocket card to distribute to everyone, informing them of signs that someone may be suicidal, what to do and how to get help.

His job is “no easy task,” he said.

“I want to really tell these individuals that there is hope, you are living in the moment in what you are thinking about but let the moment pass. And I am here to listen to you and certainly help you.”

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